50% off 70 years of culture and history – Changing Britain festival

Changing Britain festival is open – interrogating 70 years of British culture and history through discussion, debate, film, music, performance and visual arts.

The first weekend (Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 April) covers 1945-1979. Housewives Choice tracks the journey away from the domestic sphere during the 1950s. Rid England Of This Plague discusses attitudes towards homosexuality before and after the 1957 Wolfenden Report. No Longer the Second Sex delves into the feminism of the 1970s and we also ask ‘What were the consquences of the arrival of the contraceptive pill?‘ Screenings include the classic TV play Abigail’s Party and BAFTA-award-winning Vera Drake.

The second(Saturday 25 and Sunday 26)examines the period 1979-1997 and looks in depth at one of the most powerful women in British history, Margaret Thatcher. We query her impact and legacy – was this legacy good or bad for Britain? We also discuss the Falklands War and the ongoing under-representation of women in parliament. The weekend also asks how the ‘lad backlash’ happened in From Cosmo to Nuts, and pays homage to the Women at Greenham with a talk and a screening of Carry Greenham Home.

Finally on Saturday 2 May we take a long view backwards with the question ‘have women’s lives changed for the better in the last 70 years and what battles remain?’ There’s also a screening of Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank.